2020 candidates condemn Senate for acquitting Trump, set sights on election

Candidates in this year’s presidential race denounced the Senate for acquitting President Trump in the upper chamber’s impeachment vote Wednesday.

The impeachment trial came to a close this week after Senate Democrats were unable to garner enough votes to convict the president on two charges. The vote ended up falling mostly along partisan lines, with Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) breaking from the GOP to convict the president on the abuse of power charge. 

Some of the candidates took to Twitter to express their displeasure with the Senate’s decision.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who voted Trump guilty of both charges, said it was a “somber day for our country.”

“History will remember that the majority in this body did not seek out the evidence and instead decided that the President’s actions did not even require a second look,” she wrote on Twitter.

It is a somber day for our country. As Senators, we are representatives of the American people and it’s our duty to protect and defend the Constitution.

The President leveraged the power of his office for personal gain and the choice before us is clear.

No one is above the law.

— Amy Klobuchar (@amyklobuchar) February 5, 2020

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who also voted to convict Trump, said the Republicans voted to “protect” the president, even though he “exploits our government for his personal gain.” But the senator turned her attention to the future.

“Now more than ever, we must choose courage and hope over fear,” she posted. “Now is our moment to fight back. We have defeated corruption before, and we will do it again.”

Donald Trump pressured a foreign government to interfere in our election. He undermined our diplomatic relationships and put our national security at risk. He exploits our government for his personal gain—and Republicans just voted to protect him.

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) February 5, 2020

Tom Steyer, billionaire philanthropist, said Trump’s acquittal signals that the Republican senators will not “magically negotiate in good faith and ‘meet in the middle.’”

“There is no “middle.” There’s right and wrong,” he said. “We all need to show up in 2020 if we’re going to get the change we want.”

The vote to acquit Mr. Trump is a lesson for those who think the @SenateGOP will magically negotiate in good faith and “meet in the middle.”

There is no “middle.” There’s right and wrong.

We all need to show up in 2020 if we’re going to get the change we want.

— Tom Steyer (@TomSteyer) February 5, 2020

Meanwhile, Trump’s GOP primary challenger Bill Weld, former governor of Massachusetts, said the acquittal was “to no one’s surprise,” but commended Romney for voting to convict Trump, saying the Utah senator showed “the courage we should expect from our US Senators.” 

To no one’s surprise, the US Senate has voted to allow @realDonaldTrump to remain in office despite his clear abuses of power and of the Constitution. I suspect the American people, with their votes, will render a more principled judgement.

— Gov. Bill Weld (@GovBillWeld) February 5, 2020

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the Senate trial a “charade” and the vote a “disgrace,” before encouraging people to focus on the 2020 election.

“We must do in November what all but one of the Senate Republicans didn’t have the courage to do: vote to remove a lawless, reckless president and turn the page on this dark chapter in the life of our country,” he wrote.

The trial was a charade, and the vote is a disgrace. I have no doubt that historians will ultimately convict this President, along with the Republicans who lack the courage to do it themselves. But we cannot wait for history to render its verdict – that is our job in November.

— Mike Bloomberg (@MikeBloomberg) February 5, 2020

Former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg – who received the most number of delegates in Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucus Monday with 92 percent of the precincts reporting – also set his sights on the future election, saying the American people “will be the jury tomorrow.”

The Senate was the jury today, but we will be the jury tomorrow. The last word on Donald Trump and Trumpism will come through the American people—at ballot boxes across the country.

— Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) February 5, 2020

Updated: 9:45 p.m.